Early hatch....

[calgal98]

So I set my shipped runner duck eggs on saturday. This morning I'm checking for developing embryos and hear this chirping....I have a hatching egg! Obviously the seller sent a developing egg with my *fresh* eggs. I had noticed it when candling, but thought it was just a dead egg. I decided to give it a couple of days because I'm new to duck eggs. So this morning I have a pipping and chirping runner duckling! Ugh...gotta get ready!

 

[FenDruadin]

Oh my!

Well, that was unexpected, eh? I'm surprised the little one made the trip, but then I've seen eggs go cold for more than a day and still develop just fine, so there you go. Congrats!!

 

[duckyfromoz]

WOW!!! How amazing!!! Just goes to show how resilient they really can be. Makes me wonder though how in the world the seller could have mixed them up.

A few years ago I bought a few ducks from a lady- who gathered a few eggs from random nests in the yard to give me as well. After 4- 5 days I candled the eggs and found some much more developed than others...in the end between the first and last to hatch there was 6 days. They had been in nests under sheets of iron - and in the summer heat had started developing without the mother sitting on them. But for your egg to be so far along...it must have been sat on by a duck for some time.